Oprah Winfrey dedicates show to her late dog

**waikiki** · April 5th, 2008, 07:13 AM

Originally Posted by crackho

Why doesn't the bitch call out stars like Britney and Paris who buy pets at pet stores that undoubtedly support mills instead of adopting from the humane society or other type of rescue league? Because her real concern is capitalism.

I agree with you. But I think that if Oprah mentioned Paris & co, then she'd get into truble. She's not entitled to call out on people without their explicit consent, she'd make a mistake.

**McJag** · April 5th, 2008, 09:09 AM

I watched the show,a real tear jerker from start to finish. Listen: it is so hard to lose a pet,if my worst enemy lost one I would still sit right down and cry with 'em.
She had on a man who, to get her attention actually put up a giant bulletin boad on her route to work saying"Oprah,please do a show on puppy mills." She bit! He was on. He rides around all day to various puppy mills to pick up their rejects-usually male puppies & old females. The mill owners (the good ones he says) call & say "You have X time to come pick up this dog or I am going to shoot her"(this is not against the law.) The one day they (and Lucy what-her-name) picked up 75 dogs from different mills. They bring them to this guy's big farm,wash & groom,them work with the doggy (some have never once been out of a cage) and then they get adopted. He has 10 dogs-unadoptable ones,he keeps. I fell in love with the man. The head of ASPCA was there. This is what they all said: do not buy from a pet store. Either buy from a decent pet breeder (they have no problem with that,as these people devote their lives to raising well loved dogs) or rescue,but spay & neuter!

**S&R's Mom** · April 5th, 2008, 09:49 AM

I watched the show too. Through tears I might add. One thing I never would have thought was major puppy mills are owned and operated by alot of the Amish community. Dogs are just livestock to these folkes and they don't deserve to be treated well. Surely God will look down on these religious people for their treatment of animals. If I were to buy a pet it would not come from a pet store!!!
I would adopt from the local Humane Shelter.
There is no excuse not to spay or neuter your pet!

**Honey** · April 5th, 2008, 10:07 AM

Sounds like it was a good show, I saw the tribute video they made about Sophie. It was sad

Losing your best friend hurts, even if you hate Oprah I think you can understand how painful it is for her.

**bellini** · April 5th, 2008, 10:14 AM

Originally Posted by McJag

I watched the show,a real tear jerker from start to finish. Listen: it is so hard to lose a pet,if my worst enemy lost one I would still sit right down and cry with 'em.
She had on a man who, to get her attention actually put up a giant bulletin boad on her route to work saying"Oprah,please do a show on puppy mills." She bit! He was on. He rides around all day to various puppy mills to pick up their rejects-usually male puppies & old females. The mill owners (the good ones he says) call & say "You have X time to come pick up this dog or I am going to shoot her"(this is not against the law.) The one day they (and Lucy what-her-name) picked up 75 dogs from different mills. They bring them to this guy's big farm,wash & groom,them work with the doggy (some have never once been out of a cage) and then they get adopted. He has 10 dogs-unadoptable ones,he keeps. I fell in love with the man. The head of ASPCA was there. This is what they all said: do not buy from a pet store. Either buy from a decent pet breeder (they have no problem with that,as these people devote their lives to raising well loved dogs) or rescue,but spay & neuter!

Thanks for recapping McJag. I watched as well. Oprah wasn't capitalizing on her dog's death. For once, this was not a show off moment for her. I knew a bit about puppy mills but what the show revealed was just horrific. Poor breeder females being kept in chicken coops, never to be handled by humans. Never to have affection from humans, only to give birth to puppies until they're too old to do that. Then shot in the head. Some of the puppies had bloody paws from standing for hours on the wire cages. These cages were stacked, three deep, on one another. One idiot owner, would shuttle the dogs from a cage to a hamster wheel, where they had to run all day. The abuse these dogs suffer is heartbreaking. I am so glad Oprah did this show.

Don't ever buy a dog from a pet shop!

**HelpMeRhonda** · April 5th, 2008, 10:47 AM

I thought it was great, I'm so glad she is trying to get the word out about puppy mills.. this day and age there are still so many that have no idea what they are and why they SHOULD NOT BUY FROM A PET STORE.. they said 99% of dogs in petstores come from mills.
Awareness is the only hope. And some ppl still have no clue.

http://humanesociety.org/stoppuppymills

**HelpMeRhonda** · April 5th, 2008, 10:48 AM

Originally Posted by Honey

Sounds like it was a good show, I saw the tribute video they made about Sophie. It was sad

Losing your best friend hurts, even if you hate Oprah I think you can understand how painful it is for her.

Yes. And she had her for 13 years. I had no idea she took her to work with her everyday.

ps- I take my dog to work everyday.

**caramel** · April 5th, 2008, 10:53 AM

I totally understand her, I would be devastated if my cats would die. They are so much nicer than humans.

**sparkly** · April 5th, 2008, 06:54 PM

Originally Posted by S&R's Mom

I watched the show too. Through tears I might add. One thing I never would have thought was major puppy mills are owned and operated by alot of the Amish community. Dogs are just livestock to these folkes and they don't deserve to be treated well. Surely God will look down on these religious people for their treatment of animals. If I were to buy a pet it would not come from a pet store!!!
I would adopt from the local Humane Shelter.
There is no excuse not to spay or neuter your pet!

I had no idea!

That's horrible.

And a lot of them act like they're more pure than the rest of us. Please.

**Sleuth** · April 5th, 2008, 07:13 PM

at risk of being pelted with tomatoes - while i agree we should be looking in animal shelters first, not all pet stores are evil...

**GaPeach** · April 5th, 2008, 10:05 PM

I didn't watch the show because my granddoggy Ushi passed in August and Mulan (the blonde) just passed in March. I knew I would be a basket case. If I watched the show.

I'm always glad when people speak up for animals. I have a friend who just adopted a lab who was siezed from a puppy mill - they had over 400 dogs.

**McJag** · April 5th, 2008, 10:07 PM

Originally Posted by GaPeach

I didn't watch the show because my granddoggy Ushi passed in August and Mulan (the blonde) just passed in March. I knew I would be a basket case. If I watched the show.

I'm always glad when people speak up for animals. I have a friend who just adopted a lab who was siezed from a puppy mill - they had over 400 dogs.

Sweet doggies. It was a 4 box of Kleenex show,trust me.

**Trixie** · April 5th, 2008, 11:23 PM

I didn't watch the show either...I can't even watch those Pedigree commercials with the dog in the pound saying "I don't know how I ended up here" without tearing up.

But, I know enough about puppy mills and all that stuff already. If Oprah educated some people who don't, then it was a good thing.

**bellini** · April 5th, 2008, 11:33 PM

I'm so sorry for your loss GaPeach! That must have been very hard. Were your dogs Shar-Peis? They certainly were cute. I felt bad when Oprah was crying. It's very difficult to lose a pet.

**McJag** · April 5th, 2008, 11:36 PM

Originally Posted by bellini

I'm so sorry for your loss GaPeach! That must have been very hard. Were your dogs Shar-Peis? They certainly were cute. I felt bad when Oprah was crying. It's very difficult to lose a pet.

We all knew just how she felt! It is so bad to lose one.